08/20/2008 09h07
New malls hunting for shop owners
Valor Econômico - 08/20/2008
The commercial department of the four shopping mall companies listed in the Bovespa (São Paulo Stock Exchange) - Iguatemi, BR Malls, Multiplan and General Shopping - are doing everything that is currently possible at the moment in the hunt for shop owners and making retail operations to sell out the new undertakings under construction. Several of them - at least 17 - will be opened between 2009 and 2010. The purchase of already existing shopping malls is the fastest means to grow and fatten up earnings. But the return on the capital invested may be much greater in newly-built malls. Now it is the projects starting from zero that are in the spotlight. Once the projects are chosen, what is in stake is the capacity of the companies to attract the best shop owners to these new temples of consumption, a factor that will be vital for the profitability of the undertakings. And there is no lack of fight among companies to get the best operations. Both Multiplan and Iguatemi have announced that they will build new shopping malls in Brasilia - the undertaking of Multiplan opens in November/2010 and Iguatemi's in September/2009. Both will also be rivals in Ribeirão Preto, where they will build undertakings. Until the end of 2009, the Multiplan group will open vacancies for more than 800 stores in the new areas available both in the undertakings undergoing enlargement, such as BH Shopping in Minas Gerais and Anália Franco in São Paulo, and in the two malls which are already in phase of construction. One of them,
Shopping Vila Olímpia, will be opened in May/2009 in the city of São Paulo and it fights for retail operations with
JK Iguatemi that will be opened in October/2010, in a pretty close area. JK will have room for 240 stores. The numbers released by the companies in the third quarter, however, indicate it has not been very difficult to find lessees for the new undertakings. The retail segment continues optimistic in relation to consumption in the next years. Many "anchor" stores - brands that draw the public, such as Americanas, Renner, Riachuelo, C&A - plan on increasing the pace of expansion in 2009 and they are contracting spaces in the new malls. "There is a restrained demand, especially in B and C classes. All main chains have sped up their projects of expansion by 20% or 30% (compared to 2006 and 2007) and the search for space in the undertakings that will be opened in 2009 has been great", says Alessandro Veronezzi, president of General Shopping Brasil (GSB) that will open two malls next year, Sulacap, in Rio, and Barueri, in São Paulo.
